Three men charged over 'terror plot' against Australian army base

Australian police have charged a further three men with plotting a Somali-linked suicide attack on a Sydney army base.

3:00AM BST 05 Aug 2009

A fourth man, Nayef El Sayed, was charged with conspiring to prepare an act of terrorism earlier this week and has been remanded in custody.

Another man detained before the police carried out early morning counter-extremist raids in Melbourne on Tuesday was also expected to be charged over the alleged plan to storm the sprawling Holsworthy barracks with automatic weapons and kill as many soldiers as possible.

"These three were arrested yesterday. They've been charged with the same offence that the person has been charged with yesterday," a spokeswoman for Victoria police said.

"We expect a fifth man who was already in custody on other matters will appear in court later today and be charged with the same offence."

The group allegedly had links with Somalia's hardline al-Shabaab insurgents and had sought a "fatwa," or religious ruling, for their attack, which police said would have been the worst seen on Australian soil.

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Police revealed details of the alleged plot after raids on 19 houses in the southern city of Melbourne, the culmination of a seven-month intelligence operation.

"Potentially this would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil," Tony Negus, the acting Australian Federal Police chief, said.

Police allege the cell's plan was to send a team of gunmen with automatic rifles on a suicide attack against Holsworthy Barracks, an army base on the outskirts of Sydney that houses commandos trained in counterterrorism, a Black Hawk helicopter squadron and thousands of troops.

"Details of the planning indicated the alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," Mr Negus said.

Police said extensive electronic surveillance and phone intercepts of the cell revealed details of the plot.

"I stalked around. It is easy to enter" the Holsworthy barracks, one of the suspects allegedly said to another in an intercepted text message, The Age newspaper reported.

Police have alleged the men were linked to the Somali Islamist organization al-Shabaab and were trying to find a senior cleric who would approve the operation so they could become martyrs.

Australia became a staunch US ally in the war on terrorism after Sept. 11 and has deployed forces to fight insurgents in Afghanistan.

Mr Negus said some of the suspects had travelled to Somalia and were believed to have fought alongside Islamic insurgents there.

Al-Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed transitional government. It has claimed responsibility for several high-profile bombings and shootings in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, targeting Ethiopian troops and Somali government officials.

Muslim leaders in Australia worried that news of the alleged plot could provoke reprisals against the country's more than 340,000 Muslims.

"There are fears that there will be a backlash against the Muslim community and the Somali community," said Shereen Hassan, vice president of the Islamic Council of Victoria state. "But we have faith that the overwhelming majority of Australians will not react in this way and remain calm."